Ps 132

• Of all the merits of David (here as a type of Christ), what is singled out?
  • Read Ps 11:4 (a psalm of David): Since David knew that God does not dwell in a temple made by hands (cf 1 Ki 8:27; 2Chr 2:6; cf Isa 66:1-2), why did he still want to build one? What stopped him from doing so, and why? (cf 1Chr 22:7-8)
• How else was David’s desire honored to see God dwell among his people? =>
• Optional: Read 2Sam 7:11-16. What did the OT prophet Samuel predict about how God will build that house himself?
  • What work does this require in his people?
  • If the prophecy is about Messiah, who was without sin (Phil 2:8; Heb 4:15), why a rod of discipline, v15? For whom? Eph 1:22-23, Rev 3:19; Heb 12:6,10
• Why is Ps 132 so interested in this story of David’s temple project and what God made of it? cf Ps 127:1 *
  • Does Ps 132 say how God will build that (spiritual) temple for himself?

• Who are the “we” in every Song of Ascents (also in v7): All workers whose work is… (how would you fill in the blanks?)
• What is “it” (hebr.: feminine) that all believers have heard about? [Explain: hebr. aron (ark of the covenant) is masculine; the only feminine noun in Ps 132 which v6 can refer to is the horn (hebr. qeren) of David, the Messiah promised to come from David] =>
  • How did every believer hear this “in Bethlehem/Ephratha” (even if we have not been there)? 1Sam 16:1,10-13
• “…we found…” (hebr. mātsa), in the sense: We found out. Considering the context, what was there “to find out in the fields of Jaar” (lit. ‘…of the wood’)? => Explain:
  • Jaar is Kiriath-Jearim: 1Sam 4-6 recounts how the ark of the covenant came to be there (see map)
  • From Shiloh in Ephraim, it was taken by the corrupt sons of the highpriest Eli into battle with the Philistines, who captured it but later returned it voluntarily to Beth Shemesh, a town of Levites.
  • The Levites could not endure the ark either (!) and moved it to Kiriath-Jearim (1Sam 6:19-21, a town in Judah, David’s tribe, bordering Benjamin (Jos 18:14-15) the tribe of Saul (1Sam 9:1-2) from whom the kingdom came to be taken away later. => Return to the question:

• What did the ark of the covenant symbolize? If needed, read Heb 2:17; Ro 3:25 (cf 1Jn 2:2; 4:10): The word translated in the NT as propitiation or expiation or atonement (gr. hilasterion) is how the lid of the ark was called (often translated as ‘mercy-seat’).
• The meaning of the ark’s tent: Heb 9:8-9 [i.e. the division of the tent into ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ taught Israel that their sins are not expiated by animal sacrifices, but by a future covenant (Heb 10:1), where Messiah himself must become highpriest Ps 110:1-4]
• Accordingly, what might be symbolized by the ark’s obscure location outside an obscure town? cf Heb 13:10-15
• …and by its move from Levi to Judah? cf Heb 7:14

• v8: In which temple is God asked to remain forever: In a building in Jerusalem, or in the body of Christ?
• Why does it matter to know this?**

• => Why pray for ‘clothing with righteousness’, why only for priests, and what has that to do with ‘shouting for joy’?
• vv11-12: What will distinguish this one Son of David from all others?

• Do they retract what the Psalm said about Zion not being an earthly city?
• vv15-16: What is identified as the reason why God who cannot be contained by the heavens was so interested in the earthly Jerusalem? cf Jn 15:11

• The biblical notion that a transcendent God intervenes in the affairs of men and that he did so in history especially with the nation of Israel divides the world in those who believe it and those who don’t. Whatever you yourself believe about that, what led you to your view about it?
• Based on this Psalm, do you expect that the eartly Jerusalem is the dwelling place of God, or that there is a need for another literal temple to be built there?
• Do you think it matters? Why or why not? [is political Zionism spiritual?]
• What difficulties and issues do you see arise from Zionist (or anti-Zionist) beliefs?
• Should Christians still focus in any way on the earthly Jerusalem for religious reasons?
• As a song for the community of believers, is Ps 132 timeless, or only suited for a specific period in history? Why?

* Since those labor in vain who build the house by themselves, Ps 132 now focuses instead on the work of Christ, and on how an understanding of it will transform their prayers and worship.

** No pilgrim must mistake the earthly Jerusalem for heaven itself. Instead, all must set their confidence on that Son of David, and his future covenant, of which the temple in Jerusalem was merely an image Heb 8:5